by Zoha Kazemi
Tirad is roaming around above the ruined city with his team leader, Arjia. He swims above the collapsed buildings and slump roads. He has to be careful not to get stuck under the buildings that might cave in unexpectedly. He thinks how easier it would have been if they were to mine out bricks instead of metals. But bricks are heavy and are priceless since they are not useable on the ships and lands. They were more valuable three hundred years ago when the islands were built, but now steel, iron, aluminium and copper have more buyers, even plastic is more valuable. Tirad needs to pay attention to his team leader. They can’t talk under the water. Tirad has heard about advanced oxygen masks that have a special device, transferring sound under water and the divers are able to talk to each other while diving. But the Avij Ship has been lucky just to refill the oxygen tanks of these old masks since the diving tools have become so expensive in the last five months that the war rumour has spread. The high prices have put many divers out of work. Tirad has to talk with his partner in gestures. Arjia points at something on the city floor. A road seems to have ruptured and there is a hole in it. He wants to go down and check out the hole. Arjia swims down. Tirad feels uneasy to dive down. The water pressure gives him a heavy headache, even though he takes all precautions and wears the leather earplugs that Dalia has made for him. He always feels like the capillaries on his forehead would erupt any moment, his ears would be deafened and his head explode. The other divers are used to the water pressure and keep telling him it would become easier with time.
A hole has opened on a square where a few roads lead to it. Arjia takes the edge of the hole with his hand. Tirad turns on the flashlight and shines it to the great hall that appears to be under the hole. The chamber seems to have been built under the city ground. Arjia points at him gesturing that they should go down together. The discovered hall is probably full of untouched pre-rain metal objects. They heard that another ship had come to this place before Avij. They were from Harlan and didn’t have any diving permits and had used explosives to blow up the building and roads to mine and dive out concrete blocks. Cement and concrete blocks don’t sell well in Oxan market but Harlan pays them good money for it. There are rumours that Harlan is building an artificial island with concrete blocks. This hole is probably the result of an explosion. It doesn’t matter anyway, Tirad is already so happy to be the founder of this new treasure place. This means a great victory for him and Arjia, even if it was caused by Harlan divers’ explosives. They have to go down now and see what this treasure is worth.
Tirad fixes the flashlight on the edge of the opening, nailing its legs to the cement edge of the hole and directs the flashlight to light up a vast area under the opening. He also needs to keep his helmet light on. Arjia has already reached the bottom of the hole and waves at him, telling him it’s safe to go down. Tirad presses his feet against the edge of the opening and pushes himself downward. The hall is massive and continues long under the untouched roof. The first thing that catches Tirad’s eye is the rusty iron benches that are placed around the hall. There are at least fifteen benches on either side of the hall. These benches alone can mount to a profitable diving trip. But Arjia is walking towards the stretched horizontal hole that is in the middle of the hall, separating it into two parts. This hole is covered with bricks and rubbles from the caved in ceiling.
Tirad gestures to Arjia telling him it might be dangerous and the rest of the roof might fall in. But Arjia wants to know what he has found. He moves to the long stretched slot at the end of the hall. It looks like a cave that continues forever under the city ground. Tirad follows him. Arjia bends and touches the red, coarse surface of the corroded steel bars that are laid down on the ground hole. He thuds on the steel surface to see whether they have been corroded and hollow inside or not. The bars seem fine and they only need to clean the surface corrosions to have their treasure! Arjia and Tirad happily move up to the opening. What they have found can make Avij the richest diving ship in the area. The steel bars that are laid on the stretched horizontal hole seem like a railroad. The main country railroads were dived out after the Great Gog. It was easy to dive the rails out. All they did was to follow the railroad from north to south. If the railroad had survived the earthquakes, they were sure to reach many iron bars. What Tirad has found now, must have been some sort of an urban transportation system like the railroads. He wants to stay more and investigate the area, but their time is up. If they don’t get to the surface within half an hour, they might run out of oxygen. Tirad disengages the flashlight from the opening and swims up from the city surface. He then rings the bell on his cable, waiting to be pulled up from the boat. Whenever he is pulled up, his ears become jammed and the pressure pain circles in his head. But he prefers it than to be pushed down. At least he gets to the surface coming back to life and cheating death one more time.
Two people come to him. They take off his mask and helmet and give him a towel to wrap around himself. They also give him some saltwater. The divers have gathered under a small, roofed area of the boat to escape the heavy showers falling down. Arjia is among them but Tirad usually feels sick after coming up to the surface, he would shiver and throw up every time. The divers tell him he will get used to the vertigo and the nausea after diving. Tirad can’t say anything back. He is holding a buckle in his hand, throwing up. Arjia is telling the mining team about their discovery. The diving-head asks if he is sure the steels are not corroded? Arjia is sure. He says their surfaces have been oxidised but since they were in a closed area, the temperature was low and there were no currents, they are still intact. The diving-head is suspicious about the hole. He doesn’t know whether it was created by the explosion or has caved in by the aftershocks. If it was the same time as the explosion, the concrete divers would have found the steel bars and mine them already, or they might still plan to do so. The diving-head orders the mining team to get ready for diving out the first batch that day, he wants them to hurry and start away.
Tirad wants to be with the mining team, now that he has been a part of this great discovery. He wants to go deeper in the caves and see how the pre-rain people used these caves for transportation. Arjia tells the diving team that if they are lucky, they might even find untouched locomotives in the caves. The diving-head agrees with him. One of the team members suggests that it might be better to get help from another diving team like Parand Ship to help them extract the steel bars since the estimated amount and the weight of the steels are great. They only have six more weeks to mine this area. Yet the diving-head believes they should do it themselves and dive out whatever they can, not mentioning it anywhere else. But they need to work full time and with all their power to profit as much as possible in the next six weeks. Especially now and with the starting war, it is not wise to share this profit with others. The rest of the divers agree with him. Tirad feels better now and tells the diving-head he wants to take part in the mining. He doesn’t approve. One of the divers approaches Tirad.
“The Saviour soldiers have come to Avij…” the diver says. Tirad looks at him, confused. It is not the first time the soldiers have come to Avij. In the past eight months that Tirad has lived on the Avij Ship with Dalia, the soldiers have come to search the ship many times. But Tirad had introduced himself as ‘Narivan’ from the start and had managed to hide himself. Dalia had stolen oxygen masks from the divers and every time the soldiers came, Tirad would take the mask and hide under Asin’s boat. The soldiers never searched under the boats. And one of the times, Tirad had gone on a diving trip and the soldiers had returned without finding him. When Tirad and Dalia came to Avij, Tirad changed his name and they gave their boat – stolen from the Oxan boatman – as a good offering to the Avij Ship. The Avij chief, Ardaz, had asked Dalia where her mother was and she had told him her mother died at childbirth. She had said the boatman had become ill and they had to go to Parsana to cure him, but the boatman had died in Parsana. She told them that she met Narivan on Parsana and they were married there and the boat they had w
as Narivan’s wedding gift to her. Ardaz hadn’t asked further questions. Even though Dalia’s father hadn’t returned, Ardaz had taken the boat and let the newlyweds stay on Avij. Tirad is sure the Saviour soldiers are not looking for him. They have already come to find him five times in the rain season. They must be mad to try again!
“The soldiers have the Circle’s order… The Circle has asked every ship to send thirty fighting men and women. They have come with boats waiting for us to give them a list and take the men with them,” the diver continues. The war is not just a rumour amore. It has begun and whether Tirad wants it or not, he will be a part of it.
“Why are you telling me this?” Tirad asks the diver who is looking down shamefully. He must have said this at the wrong time for Tirad is now the hero of the day and the Avij Ship will owe him their newly found wealth!
“Ardaz has given your name in the list. He has sent a courier boat to take you and Shirang back to Avij. You will be sent to the Saviour Ship with the soldiers,” the diver says, still avoiding Tirad’s face. Tirad is shocked by this news. He must have known! Ardaz is still unaware of his great discovery, he understands Ardaz’s choice. If he were in his place, he would also send the new comers, still learning to dive instead of professional miners. Yet Tirad can’t go back. If he disobeys the chief, he will be expelled from the ship but he has many reasons not to be sent off. The first reason is his true identity and then Dalia’s due date which is close. They had entered Avij without any problems, but leaving it seems difficult. He shouldn’t say anything to the diver. He has to return to the ship and decide what to do with the help of Dalia. The diver points at the courier boat floating around the diving boat stern. He says Shirang is already on the courier waiting for him. Arjia and the rest of the diving team give him a warm, friendly farewell and promise him a good reward for his discovery. They escort him to the courier and return to their mining plans.
Chapter 32
The courier boat doesn’t have a shelter and the rain falls straight on Tirad’s face. He is already wet; at least the raindrops are not as sticky as the seawater. The boat sails at a very high speed and they should get to Avij by nightfall. But Tirad can’t bare the moist wind that blows in his face. He covers his ears and pulls his head down. He has to do something. Maybe it is time to bring out the Saviour coins he has hid under Asin’s boat and go to Atlan. Dalia hasn’t been feeling well the last few months. She has constant nightmares and looks thinner and paler every day. She can hardly walk on her weak legs carrying her heavy belly. She keeps having bad dreams about her mother and her stillborn babies and is scared of giving birth on the sea. She has been asking him to take her to a land but Tirad doesn’t know where to take her. They can’t go to Oxan or the Saviour Island, even the Atan guards are looking for him. Dalia had insisted that Tirad should take Hurmaz’s documents against Mart and the Circle to Atlan and ask them to give them refuge. But Tirad knows these documents are not news to Atlan, they already know about all the illegal dealings. Atlan can’t and does not want to get involved with the affairs of the Saviour Ship. If they know where he is, they will come and arrest him and hand him over to the Saviour authorities to prevent the war that is going to start in Tirad’s name. Atlan doesn’t care if Tirad was innocent or not, they would easily surrender him to stop the war.
Dalia keeps saying she is going to have the same fate as the dead pregnant women and Tirad had tried to take her mind off such negative thinking. They don’t have a choice now. They can’t stay on Avij anymore. They have to sail again. Maybe he should take her to Parsana. She will at least be safe there with so many professional healers on the ship and so will her baby. In the last few months, Tirad has thought about going back to the Saviour Ship and give himself in to stop the war. He doesn’t want this war to be in his name and because of him. But he never had the guts to leave Dalia behind. He loves living with her and diving with the Avij divers. He can’t let go of Dalia and leave her alone with her endless nightmares. Returning to the Saviour Ship means confessing to the greatest crime of the Oxan! He can’t bring himself around to take the blame for something he hasn’t done. Whatever he gets blamed for will not make up for the pain, suffering and the deaths of the Oxan refugees but at least he can stop further bloodshed. It would cost him his life and even Dalia’s life since she was his accomplice. And what would happen to his baby who would have to carry his father’s shameful name for all his life. The only way to avoid this dreadful war and the many calamities it will bring for the sea people, would be to self-sacrifice himself and surrender to Mart. Dalia will understand. They can’t ignorantly hide anymore and watch the suffering of the people.
They need to get away from Avij first. Then they will decide where to go: to Atlan, Parsana or to the Saviour Ship to surrender. Tirad has no home to go to, nowhere safe to live peacefully with his wife and baby. Dalia is the same. She had helped him escape. Tirad doesn’t know what will happen to her if he leaves her on Avij? Ardaz might do anything to her, even if he doesn’t find out the Narivan, who is Dalia’s husband, has been Tirad all along, he might exile Dalia as soon as he sees Tirad has disobeyed him and not joined the Saviour soldiers. He thinks it would be better that they become separated. He should go to the Saviour Ship alone. He can send Dalia to Atlan; they won’t harm a single pregnant woman. But sending her to Atlan takes time; he needs to find a boat etc. The Saviour soldiers will leave next dawn. He only has till tomorrow morning before they find out who he is. They need to get away from Avij before sunrise. He could take Dalia to Parsana and ask Armina to send her to Atlan and set off for the Saviour Island alone from there. He is happy to be planning himself. It’s the first time he is deciding what to do. All this time, he has watched others take his fate in their hands and lead his life for him. He had let Mart condemn him for a crime he never committed, he had allowed Narivan and Dalia to save his life and make him wander on different ships. It wasn’t all that bad. Having married Dalia was the best thing in his life and he enjoyed a diver’s life, but he hadn’t even chosen those. He will take fate into his hands from now on.
Tirad opens his eyes. He had fallen asleep, sitting on the courier boat. They have arrived at Avij and the boat is approaching the western platform. Tirda jumps from the boat to the platform and then jumps again to Asin’s boat. Dalia is waiting for him and she comes to greet him. She has already prepared everything! She starts explaining how she has been stealing food from the Avij kitchen and stolen fuel from the boats in the middle of the night. She has started right away since the soldiers had come two nights ago and Ardaz had given his name to the soldiers. Tirad praises her, but in his heart, he wishes she hadn’t done that. He wanted them to leave Avij on his decision and this time, he would be the one encouraging Dalia to leave. He wanted himself to plan and prepare for the escape. Yet with Dalia’s detailed explanations, he feels too naïve; he could never foresee so many things needed to survive a boat journey. He had thought about where to go and what to do but had forgotten about what supplies they needed. He kisses Dalia’s forehead and tells her that they should wait until midnight and before Dalia tells him where to go, he starts explaining his decision and their route: first to Parsana and then separately to Atlan and the Saviour Island. He doesn’t let her speak and object. He has made up his mind.
“Why don’t we go together and find my mother’s island,” Dalia says in a despaired voice and her tears roll down her eyes. Tirad wipes her tears from her face and embraces her.
“I am not going to sit around anymore and watch people die in a meaningless war. Besides, we don’t know where the island is and we have to go to Atlan first. I can’t risk getting caught there, it would only justify the war and prove Mart’s claim that I had fled to Atlan. Your due date is close. I don’t want you giving birth on a passenger boat. Atlan is three weeks away from here. You can have your baby on Parsana and leave with the baby for Atlan. I only trust Armina with your life. We have enough coins not be worried about anything,” Tirad tells her
trying to calm her down. But Dalia is worried.
“What if the Saviour soldiers attack Parsana? What will I do then?” she asks.
“Mart is looking for me! He wants to take over Atlan. He has no business there! I doubt he would waste his time and his soldiers on Parsana,” Tirad says with a bold tone and drowns in his thoughts. Dalia pours some water from the bucket by the boat cabin on her head and her belly and goes to prepare food. Tirad watches her bending and moving with difficulty, putting the dinner plates on the cabin floor. Her belly seems to have moved down a little.
“When do you think the baby will be born?” he asks Dalia. She doesn’t know.
“Maybe it is better that you stayed here… The baby seems to be coming soon! It might be dangerous for you to sail now and besides Ardaz would probably spare you…if you’re with a new-born,” Tirad suggests, but Dalia doesn’t accept.
“My mother was pregnant when Ardaz threw us out. He didn’t care even though my father was not a fugitive…he had gone fishing! Ardaz will throw me out with the baby! I will not stay,” Dalia says and looks down. She seems more depressed than ever,
“If I am to be separated from you, I would like to be with you until the last possible moment. I even prefer to go with you to the Saviour Ship…” she says and looks the other way, scared of Tirad’s angry reaction. Tirad doesn’t accept. He repeats that they will be looking for Dalia as his accomplice. He has made up his mind and will not change his plan. He changes the subject and tells her about his diving trip today. Dalia listens excitedly to Tirad giving details about the large hall and the long railroad caves under the city. Dalia definitely knows the worth of this discovery and wanted to be there and see it for herself. When Tirad finishes his victorious talks, Dalia goes out of the cabin and checks the rain. It is still raining but lighter than the previous days.